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A class on Chapter 5, The Yoga of Renunciation, from the Bhagavad Gita, as translated by Stephen Mitchell, Three Rivers Press, New York, 2000. The class spent time on the passage: They do not rejoice in good fortune; they do not lament at bad fortune; lucid, with minds unshaken, they remain within what is real. Pleasures from external objects are wombs of suffering, Arjuna. They have their beginnings and their ends; no wise man seeks joy among them.
Comment
A class on Chapter 5, The Yoga of Renunciation, from the Bhagavad Gita, as translated by Stephen Mitchell, Three Rivers Press, New York, 2000. The class spent time on the passage: They do not rejoice in good fortune; they do not lament at bad fortune; lucid, with minds unshaken, they remain within what is real. Pleasures from external objects are wombs of suffering, Arjuna. They have their beginnings and their ends; no wise man seeks joy among them.
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The transcription is about a yoga session where the participants are guided through various exercises and reflections to help them let go of attachments and achieve a state of union with God. They are encouraged to see everything they do as an offering to God and to look beyond physical appearances and possessions. The session also introduces the concept of having without possessing and explores the idea of non-attachment. The participants share their experiences and insights during the session. The session concludes with the start of a study on the Yoga of Renunciation. Let's take a deep breath, get our feet attached to Mother Earth and raise the tips of our head up high, straighten our spine and let our tailbone press down on our chairs. Now let us begin by making the sound of Aum together three times, with a deep in-breath and hold it, Aum, Aum, Aum. Does anyone have anything that came up for them during the week with regard to last week's session they'd like to share? All right. Let me get my everything organized here. All right. So, last week, one of the things we studied was the following verse. When a man has let go of attachments, except for email attachments, of course, when his mind is rooted in wisdom, everything he does is worship, and his actions all melt away. God is the offering. God is the offered, poured out by God. God is attained by all those who see God in every action. There are a number of things that we can do if we choose to help get us some separation from this I-ness illusion. And there's perhaps no point where we've gotten to that point unless we've achieved a state of union with God. And I would suggest that that is not a state. You know, water has a state. It's ice, it's liquid, it's evaporate. But I think that the state called Samadhi is not a state, but rather a process. And we're all in a process, some farther away, some closer to that state called Samadhi, which is God union, unity, the name of our church. It's not like someone somewhere at some time got there and bing, bang, boom, was in this state of union with God and then just stayed there and lived happily ever after. I don't think so. I think we're all in a process, even those whom we admire as the most saintly, in that process of being ever more close to our divine spirit. So we're all in the right place at the right time. And we are studying how to divorce ourselves from this illusion of I-ness. And there are several things that we can do. One is, as the scripture says, we can look at everything that we do as an offering to God. God is the offered, God is the offering, and God is attained by all those who see God in every action. But maybe that attainment isn't a state. Maybe it's just a continual process. So we are attaining God by all those who see God in every action. So this is one practice that Bhagavad Gita gives us to help us get closer to our spiritual nature. I now have a verse I want to share with you by someone I admire. And this is another way of getting closer to our God-like nature and taking a step back from this awareness of I-ness. And his name is Iknathiswaran. He said, This body is not me. It is the house in which I live. If you say that I am so many inches tall or that I weigh such and such number of pounds, I will reply, you are not describing me. You are talking about my address. My address. Since I don't identify with my body, I don't associate other people very much with their physical appearance either. If someone asks me, how tall is Rev Ross? There he is. I have to take time to try and picture him. Then use a mental tape measure to try to remember his height. When someone asks me how old a person is, it takes a certain amount of effort for me to recall even what decade he or she is in. The more we dwell upon the physical appearance and the age of others, the more we are conscious of our own appearance and age. We should be concerned less about these details of packaging and concerned more with the contents. When I look at people, I like to look at their eyes. We did this last week in an exercise, didn't we? These are the windows of the capital R resident, the capital L Lord, the capital L Self, and Divine Essence. Gradually, as we become more and more spiritually aware, we will be looking straight into people's eyes and deep into their souls. So, another way in our consciousness of stepping back from this I-ness idea. Questions? Okay, let's jump over into our class today. Today we're studying the Yoga of Renunciation. The Yoga of Renunciation. But before you open your books, before you open your books, I have a little exercise I would like us to do. Which may or may not see what shows up for you. Now Rob here is looking over what's going on, so he already knows what's coming up. I'm trying not to. I'm very inquisitive. Go right ahead. I'm trying to know what's coming. It's all good. It's all good. So, we'll go through the exercise and just notice what comes up for you. Are we willing to join in a little exercise? All right, again, we need to get our feet on the floor, our butts, tailbone on the chair. Just get our heads high so our spines are straight. And allow your eyelids to close. Now, while we're in this peaceful state, I'm going to give you some information which will help you with the exercise. The exercise is called Having Without Possessing. Having without possessing. So, there's a difference between having versus possessing. Look inside yourself to see what you see as the difference between having versus possessing. What's that mean for you? Having versus possessing. Having without possessing. I'll suggest to you that possessing is, think of all the things you possess. Think of some things you possess. What you possess, you possess your possessions. Think of the possessions you possess. So, that's possessing. Having. Having is a little different. I'm going to suggest an image for having. Imagine a relay race in which there is a baton. Each runner carries the baton. He passes it to the next runner. He's having the baton. He passes it on. So, here's the beginner, the beginning of the race. Foot on the blocks, baton in hand. Bang! Off he runs, baton in hand. He sees the next runner. He gets close. He hands off the baton. And the next runner goes off with it. And for him, the race is over. He's handed off the baton. He was having it, and then he wasn't having it. Now, in our minds, let's apply this. Direct your focus to some small object in your life right now. A cup of coffee. Some device, perhaps. Some ornament. Some small object. Can you have this device? This small object, without possessing it. Having without possessing. Are you okay while you have it? And would you be okay if you no longer had it? Are you willing to have the object without possessing it? Focus on a large object in your life. A house, perhaps. A car, a boat, something large. Having without possessing. Having without possessing. Would you be willing to let it go? Focus now on the person in your life. Take a breath. Having without possessing. Having without possessing. Now, I request that you blink your eye open and shut quickly. Do that now. Focus on your eyesight. Do it a second time. Blink your eye open and shut it quickly. Notice what you saw. Focus on your eyesight. Having without possessing. Hear the sound. Focus on your hearing. Having without possessing. Having without possessing. Notice where your hands are right now. And focus on your sense of touch. Having without possessing. Notice your thoughts. Focus on your mind. Having without possessing. Breathe into it. Without possessing. Direct your focus to your breath. In and out. In and out. Having without possessing. Beneath your breath, focus on your heartbeat. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Having without possessing. Leaving your eyes closed, place your hands where you can see them. With eyes closed, perhaps on the table. Just rest your hands gently on the table. Or your lap. Gently allow your eyes to open. Notice your fingers and just wiggle them a little bit. Eyes open. Notice your fingers as you just wiggle them a little bit. Notice your fingers. Aum. Shanti. Shanti. That completes this exercise. Thank you. We're going to begin the scripture, the yoga of renunciation. Before we do that, does anyone have anything they'd like to share about the exercise? Yes, sir. You own a chair of IBM, for instance. You have it, but you don't possess it. Yes, all those things are like the baton in a relay race. You have it for a while, and at some point, you pass it on. And the race is over for you. And we were grateful to have had those batons in our life. Thank you. Any other sharing? Yes, Ron. When we started talking about possession, I don't know, I went to this place where I have a friend who has a big parcel of land. And it's almost like the parcel of land possesses him because he has to do so much work. He enjoys, this is his enjoyment, he enjoys working on his property, but he owns his property, but the property really owns him. And then I thought about non-attachment. And then with owning, it was owning possession, right, owning? Possession, having without possessing. Possessing, owning. Right, so with owning, I thought about sharing. And then I went to a place about, because we started talking about hands and eyes and hearing, and you rang the bell. I thought like our body, we don't, we're just kind of sharing this, we're in this body, but it's just kind of like we're renting this body in a way, because it's a physical thing. Those are the four things that I thought about. That's great, that's great. Where do we come from? We came from Source. Where do we return to? We return to Source. And while we're here, you might say we are caretakers or renters of many things, one of which is our body. And like the story I told of St. Francis, St. Francis looked at his body the way he looked at his donkey. And I wash it. I feed it. I exercise it. But the body's not me. So these are all techniques that we can use to weaken that sense of I-ness. My body, my car, my life. So we can learn to step back into the truth. Yes, sir. So the real self is the soul, which we cannot see. Yes, the real self is the soul, which we cannot see. Yes. Around all these topics, there may be some confusion in our mind. Logically, we may be struggling to figure it all out. That's good. That's good. Confusion means we're heading towards the truth. So if you have any confusion, thank you, God. We're on the right path. We're on the right path. And if you have any certainty about it, but don't want to share it, remember that certainty is the enemy of change, as someone said. And change is how we take growth. Great. Great sharing. Thank you. So let's head off into the scripture, unless someone has something else. Here we go. The Yoga of Annunciation. The blessed Lord said, the man who has seen the truth thinks, I am the doer. Me, I am the doer. I. And then, the scripture says, at all times, when he sees, hears, touches, when he smells, we didn't do smell, did we? When he eats, we didn't do eating either. We can do eating. Everybody, notice your saliva. Get some saliva in your mouth and swallow it. What's that taste like? When he eats. When he walks. When he sleeps. When he breathes. We did that one, didn't we? When he defecates. Well, we skipped that one. When he talks or takes hold. When he opens his eye or shuts them. We did that one. At all times, he thinks, this is merely sense objects acting on the senses. Something I have, I don't possess. It's sense objects acting on the senses. Now, this business about, since we're on the path to our spiritual union, there are some things we can do to progress on the path. The scripture says, offering his or her actions to God, he or she is free of all action. So, when you came here this morning, you acted. You got in your car, you drove here. When you got in your car and grasped the steering wheel, did you say, I'm dedicating this to God. Dedicating this to God. When you walked with your legs up the stairs into the room, you were walking, you took that action. Now, you say, I'm offering this also to God. Offering actions to God. He or she is free of action. Sin rolls off her or him as drops of water roll off a lotus leaf. We say sin is simply induced. Not induced, not sin. Not sin. Sin is not sin. Well, in this reading, it's just something that rolls off as drops of water roll off a lotus leaf. Surrendering attachment. Again. Except for emails. Surrendering attachment. The sage. Now, wait a minute. Who's the sage? Do you know any sages in your life? You have to be careful about that. Because their idea of the sage is, there's something that the sage is knowing that I'm not knowing. The sage. There's something the sage is knowing that I'm not knowing. So, it's a consciousness of less than. So, in a way, there are no sages. And in a way, we are all sages to some extent. In that, we know and understand some things. And thank you God, we're on a path to knowing more things. And perhaps that path includes some not knowing. The path is not knowing. Noticing that some of the things we know aren't working as well for us as they always have. And just noticing that. So, being willing to not know things that aren't working for us. So, surrendering attachment. The sage. That's all of us at some point in our path. Performs all actions with his or her body, mind, and her understanding. Only to make himself or herself pure. So, surrendering action. We perform actions to make ourselves pure. Did you drive the car to come here to make yourself pure? Did you sit down in your chair here to make yourself pure? It's a way of holding things. So, when we have that consciousness, hmm, do I want to devote all my actions to making myself pure? Hmm, that's something to consider. The scripture recommends it. The embodied self. This is the capital S self. It does not create the means of action, or the action itself, or the union of resultant action. All these arise from nature. So, our divine essence, and so on, does not create the means of action, or the action itself, or the union of resultant action. All these arise from nature. Now, we all know what the three strands of nature are, right? What are the three strands of nature? Sattva, Tamas, Buddhas. It's just a way of describing our nature. The embodied self does not create the means of action, or so on. All these arise from nature. Nor does the embodied self partake of anyone's virtuous or evil actions. The capital S self does not partake of anyone's virtuous or evil actions. No. Actions come from our gunas, from our nature. When knowledge of the self is obscured by ignorance, men act badly. When knowledge of the self is obscured by ignorance, men act badly. So, now we have a passage which relates to the time in which this is written. So, take it with a grain of salt. There it goes. Wise men regard all beings as equal. Now, who are the wise men? Not the other person, no. No, if you think someone else is wise and you're not, that means you have this idea that they are knowing something that I'm not knowing. So, we're all on a path to wisdom. At some point. Wise men regard all beings as equal. A learned priest, a cow, an elephant, a rat, or a filthy rat-eating outcast. So, the writer of the Gita was a man of his time, wasn't he? Freed from the endless cycle of birth and death, they, in other words, wise men, wise us, can act impartially toward all beings, since to them all beings are the same. So, it's like the verse we heard from Mr. Eknath S. Rann. He doesn't look at people's height, or appearance, or nature, or physiognomy. He says that he looks at people's eyes and sees their inner essence. And I think when you do that, as this gospel says, suddenly all beings have a sameness. A sameness. So, well, do we believe it or not? Shall we give it a try? Let's just give it a quick try. Pick a partner quickly, and zoomers, just imagine someone. All right, pick a partner and look them in the eye. Do that now. Yes, just look your partner in the eye, and zoomers, look your imaginary partner in the eye. And you might choose to look at a place between the eyes. A spot just between the eyes, or in the eyes, either is good. And notice what the truth is for you. Is this a being who is the same as you look in the eyes? Or is this a being who is different? Freed from the endless cycle of birth and death, wise men and women can act impartially toward all beings, since to them all beings are the same. Aum. Anyone notice anything in particular from this exercise that you would like to share? Which eye are you looking at? I'm confused. I wasn't sure which eye to look at. I have a question. Yes, Ellie, what's your question? Freed from the cycle of birth and death. Yes. What do you think he's referring to? Oh, yes, thank you. Well, Ellie, the Gita just covers different things in each verse and repeats things you've heard before and so on. In the Hindu way of looking at birth and death, we all exist before death, after death, at an all time. We are incarnated when we come here, and we are no longer manifested when we leave. So with that sort of an attitude, that some essence of us was here before we became manifested, and is still here after we are manifested. Now we have this idea in Christianity, it's called soul, and we like to think that the soul is free from death. That when the physical body dies, the soul persists. In the Hindu way of thinking, in the Bhagavad Gita, it goes both ways. Not only does something, some essence, some soul, persist after the body is no longer here, but it was existing before the body came into manifestation. If that is your understanding, and that is your comfort level with human beings, then you are freed from the cycle of birth and death. So birth is something you have, but don't possess. Death is something you have, but you don't possess, because that essence is always there, freed from the cycle of birth and death. I have the birth, great, here I am. I have a death, I've experienced a death. Thank you God for all the having that I had. And now, the time has passed, and I no longer have it. Freed from the cycle of birth and death. That's my understanding. Does that help you at all? Thank you. Okay. Now he goes on. Wise men. Who's the wise men? We are. Don't forget. It's just degrees of wisdom. Nobody's totally wise. It's not like water, you know, that goes from ice to water to evaporate, and then it's always that. It's not like wise men are always men. It's a path we're on. We all have some wisdom, and some of us are open for more. It's a path. So wise men. They do not rejoice in good fortune. They do not lament at bad fortune. Lucid with minds unshaken, they remain within what is real. So this good fortune, bad fortune business requires a little more exploration. So I'm going to share with you a little passage from the Tao Te Ching, a commentary about trying to control the future. And this is an Asian story. Here's the story. And by the way, there are three characters in the story, a farmer, his son, and his father. Okay? That's the story. A poor farmer's horse ran off into the country of the barbarians. All his neighbors offered their condolences, but his father said, how do you know that this isn't good fortune? After a few months, the horse returned with a barbarian horse of excellent stock. All his neighbors offered their congratulations, but his father said, how do you know that this isn't a disaster? The two horses bred, and the family became rich in fine horses. The farmer's son spent much of his time riding them. One day, he fell off and broke his hip bone. All his neighbors offered the farmer their condolences, but his father said, how do you know that this isn't good fortune? Another year passed, and the barbarians invaded the frontier. All the able-bodied young men were conscripted, and nine-tenths of them died in the war. Thus, good fortune can be disaster, and vice versa. Who can tell how events will be transformed? The Gita has the same story. They do not rejoice in good fortune. They do not lament at bad fortune. Lucid with minds unshaken, they remain within what is real. That's a challenge for us. If you want to learn how to deal with sufferings in your life, misfortunes, bad things happening, if you want to train yourself to deal with them, one way to do that is not to rejoice when good things happen. Now, for social intercourse, of course, someone says, oh, you're so lucky that you got the new car, or whatever nice thing. But inwardly, you keep your peace. You don't rejoice in it. It's just a thing that has happened, something you have but don't possess. So by learning not to rejoice in good fortune, we can train our minds not to lament at bad fortune, rather to remain in a state of equanimity. It's like that beginning verse of the Bhagavad Gita, which we learned, I think, in our first session. You have a right to your actions, but never to your actions' fruits. Act for the action's sake, and do not be attached to inaction. And then it goes on, capitalized self, self-possessed, resolute, act, with no thought or results, open to success or failure. This equanimity, thank you God, is yoga. This equanimity is yoga. We hear the same message repeated, don't we? We need to hear it multiple times. Questions? Ah, then the Gita goes on. Pleasures from external objects. Oh, Gail, Gail, what's your question? I can't seem to figure out how to raise my hand in this. But anyway, I'm going back a little bit. I was very intrigued by, you know, you're not the doer and this exercise you had us doing of looking in each other's eyes, which can be very hard to do. And so I wrote a chat. I'm going to read that and then say something else. It seems to me that the doer energy can pull on us being fully present as beings with each other, if we let ourselves be constantly doing a thing in here. Animals seem better able to do this, particularly horses and dogs, in my experience. And when we are fully, fully present in the moment with each other, I would say yes, the same, but it's the same in all consciousness and divine perspective. And so, which can be seductive, it can be all-encompassing. And so we can at times shy away from it and not allow that presence in the moment. Because when you were having us doing the exercise, I was thinking about how many times people in our community who I know and love, and I'll hug or I'll say hello, but I will not actually stop and be fully present in that way with you guys, I mean with anybody. I thought I was seeing an interesting connection between these different versions you're giving us. Yes, it's all connected. Thank you so much for sharing, Gail. And there was one thing I heard you say, which I found very revealing, and that is, I heard you say that it's difficult to look at someone in the eyes. Is that correct? It can be. It can be difficult. Yeah, I also enjoy it, but it can be difficult to really pause and be present. Got it. So Gail was saying it can be difficult to really pause and be present. So what I am noticing is that if it can be difficult, it happens sometimes that it's difficult to be fully present with someone and look them in the eyes, our response ought to be, thank you, God. This resistance in me is trying to tell me something. I'm not sure what it is right now. Maybe I'm confused. Maybe it's okay to look at some people directly and eye to eye, not others. Maybe there's some paradox there. But whenever any sort of resistance arises in us, that's the good Lord knocking on the door, saying here's something to notice and to be aware of and to kick into consciousness and see what's going on there. What is the gift there that I haven't been receiving, that I could be receiving, if I allow this experience to go deeper with me? And I try and look underneath myself to see what's going on, because there's some gift there waiting for me. I'm grateful I notice. Nice. Thank you. That was beautiful. Yes? Could you talk more on why we should not celebrate when good things happen to us? Well, there's this old saying, what goes up must come down. What goes up must come down. And perhaps you've seen it in someone. One day they say, oh, I got this new car. It's so great. It's shiny. It's faster, smoother, whatever. And the next day, oh my God, somebody bumped into the back. And they ran away. Miserable. It's going to cost a lot of money to fix it. So there's rejoicing. Hi. And then there's suffering. Oh, good fortune comes. Bad fortune comes. So, perhaps, and you have to see if this is true for you. It may not be true for everybody. If you can practice keeping your equanimity in good fortune, it will help you retain your equanimity in bad fortune. So that the fortunes suddenly become less good and less bad. They just become what's so. When you're celebrating and rejoicing something in a way you're attached to it. When you're miserable and suffering and telling your car and your neighbors and your friends saying, oh, this bad thing happened, you are attached to it. So, by reducing your attachment to rejoicing, it may help you when the suffering comes along so that everything is just happening as it ought to. Now, I'm judging it. This is good and that's bad. But, as I more and more learn to step back, this is happening. Thank you, God. That's happening. Thank you, God. I watch the turmoil of beings. It's easier to see this in other people. I watch the turmoil of beings as I keep my peace. Does that help at all? Yes, ma'am. As a human being living with other human beings, it seems to me that compassion and empathy are two things that make the human condition more... More beautiful. Well, I hesitate to say tolerable. Tolerable. I got it. So, I'm not sure I can be fully present with that we shouldn't celebrate or we shouldn't... Well, we should be present before we celebrate, uh-huh. We should be what? Present. Yeah, if there's things that are for us to celebrate, we should be present, noticed, yeah. It's just we're celebrating with the step back. It's like there's a story going on. We're watching it. It's the movie of our life. We're sitting in the theater watching it. We're present. We're totally present. We're glad it's happening. We're noticing some things are to celebrate and some things are to grieve. And we keep our equanimity. Being in a perspective of watching and not having it possess us. We don't... It's good to learn not to let the happy good things possess us. If the good wonderful things possess us and own us and we're attached to them, we're going to suffer when they are no longer with us. We're no longer having them. Are you still somewhat confused on this issue, ma'am? I'm sorry? Are you still somewhat not clear on it? I'm sorry, I'm not understanding, but that's okay. Good. So what I'm hearing is that she's not understanding. This is a wonderful... No, I have a profound hearing loss and sometimes it's just the words that... Ah, okay. Do I need to repeat anything? It doesn't help to repeat things. I can adjust this time. Okay. So I'm hearing she has, like me, some hearing issues. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, I forgot my hearing aids today, too. When you use the word celebrate, to me, that is an outward expression. I would, as opposed to a sense inside of me of great joy, would you not celebrate the birth of the child? Of course. It's a joyous moment. But when you say celebrate, I think that's talking about outward possessions. That's the way that I see it. More of a material kind of thing. Celebrate inside yourself. Not an outside materialistic way of doing it. Oh, I got that promotion. I'm so excited. It's a deeper feeling inside of ourselves of joy. Not the outward expression. So I'm hearing there's a deeper inside feeling of joy, not the outward expression. That makes a lot of sense to me. So when you're in a situation where the child is born, and you're experiencing that inner joy, just joyous appreciation, there you are. Joyous appreciation. At the same time you're having this inner joy, can another part of you step back and notice, Oh my God, I'm having this inner joyous experience. Thank you God. There's a certain part of us that is the observer. The eavesdropper. You can always call on that part of us, no matter what's going on. And step back from the joyous inner feeling, or the grief. Someone died in there. Torn up inside. And that observer, just step back a teeny weeny little bit, and notice, ah, that's what's going on with me. And that equanimity is yoga. Isn't that the same thing that you were saying about having and possessing? Yes. You have the joy inside you, thank you God, but it doesn't possess you. In other words, you have it, and when you don't have it, well, that's fine too. It's a baton. The joy comes, you pass it on. Yes. Thank you. All right. Yes, Russ? Three minute warning. Oh, well, let's see. One, two, we have three slides. What should we do? Why don't I finish this one, and then we'll have lots of questions. All right. The last part of this slide says, pleasures from external objects are wombs of suffering, Arjuna. They have their beginnings and their ends. No wise man seeks joy among them. Now, there's a difference between experiencing joy and seeking it. I want it. So, that verse speaks to just what we've been talking about. Do I desire joy? Do I want it? Or do I look at life's happenings as having beginnings and their ends? It's the baton. I have it, and I don't. So, no wise person desires or seeks joy, but allows it in when it comes her way. Yes, questions? This verse spoke to me this week as I was studying this chapter, and I wanted to share this with you. Seek not outside yourself, for it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls. Heaven cannot be found where it is not, and there can be no peace excepting there. Each idol that you worship when God calls will never answer in his place. There is no other answer you can substitute and find happiness that his answer brings. Seek not outside yourself, for all your pain comes simply from a brutal search for what you want, desisting where it must be found. What if it is not there? Do you prefer that you be right or happy? Be you glad that you are told where happiness abides and seek no longer elsewhere? You will fail, but it is given you to know the truth and do not seek for it outside yourself. And so, this is what this is telling me, that people are looking in the world, they're making idols, which is like a God, too, then. And all these idols fail. That's why you don't want to get, you know, when you get the new car, you know, that's your way of, oh, this is my salvation. You're seeking outside yourself. And when it fails, when the car gets wrapped around a tree or something, you're going to cry, too. But there is a joy, it's real, but it's not the joy that you derive from this world. And there is a distinction, I think, to be made, that when we unite with God, we are already perfect and sinless and part of Him. So when you come back to God, what are you coming back to? You're coming back to your remembrance of Him, as I was teaching the course. I got it. Thank you, Jeff. What Jeff did is a useful thing for any one of us to do. And that is to take the teachings that move us and try and write down what our understanding of them are. And then notice what our understanding is and have it, but don't possess it. In other words, we've got it. That's where I am right now. And with the knowledge that I may look at this in some time in the future and go, wow, I see more or less now. So it's useful to journal. Thank you, Jeff. Do we need to close now, Russ? Yes, we're at that time. And just like we teach our Sunday school lessons, our Sunday school teachers always quit while they're having fun. They'll want to come back next week. And we definitely want to come back next week. And let me ask a question that's been suggested to Steve and me. We have scheduled this series to end on Sunday the 26th. We will not have completed the entire text. Would you like to continue with the entire text? Yes. We have a variety of voices, so we'll take that into discernment. So let me know. Send me a text or email or something. Thank you for hearing my public service request. Yes, I do have some more of the Bhagavad Gita prepared. So we can go further if there's a desire to do that. All right, let's take a big breath. Another one. And let go. Notice ourselves. Observe ourselves. Deep breath. Take a look at yourself. Now let's close with three ohms. Affix your feet to the floor. Your tailbone to the chair. Raise your head high toward the heaven. Straighten your backbone. And with a deep in-breath. Aum. Aum. Aum. Shanti, shanti, shanti. And go in peace.
